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Nominalization Leads To Commoditization

One of the causes of the huge problem with rates in translation is the commoditization of our work.

We are no longer authors, we are more akin to factory-line workers in word mills. Credit is rescinded, rates are reduced, contracts get uglier by the minute, as does the manner of address in ads and inquiries.

... And yet translators embrace commodity-market routine willingly, as if following construction industry's habit and custom validated them and infused with new vigor.

Even freelancers pose as 'Doe Translations', as though they were each a small agency, ever ready to outsource, to let a million-page deal across twenty languages in and parcel it out.

LSP, Vendor, TEP, what the heck?

But even the word 'translation' is commoditizing when used as a noun unnecessarily. I'm no fan of 'Peggy Translates' kind of wacky verb use, but nominalization breeds commoditization. Because you stop talking about translating and you start talking about translations. Or marketing translation, legal translation, business translation and more of the same noun with a qualifying adjective. Nouns make products, and nouns make commodities.

A product stylization might actually be better to your PR/marketing/branding than pure service-sector placement, but it's relatively hard to build a satisfactory brand on them when they're sold by the kilogram, or by the container ex factory.

(There is a chance you don't get commoditized when your product is a commodity — unlike with commoditized services.)

You still need to tell clients what you do, but load up a couple of law websites and you'll see practice areas, client industries and more, but not Services => Title Checking, Document Review, Will Writing and other things lawyers with higher aspirations hate to do.

For a translation agency such a method of presentation makes perfect sense. They do offer defined services and products like that, generally removed and cut off from the identity of their authors. But you won't win against agencies if you compete in their field.

For a translator it may be a better idea to quit designing packages that compete sometimes on features and usually on price and instead use the translator's personality to win clients and find work.

In any case, it's easier to use a translator's existing personality than to give personality to generic products or services.

Sorry to hear about that. Hate when it happens. Yes, of course, showing personality needs some skill, some reflection on the form, the decorum, the need to stay professional.

Regarding specific information, I believe Poles are more into volume and detail, that is the form more familiar to them. Not so much in the West necessarily; in fact, global marketing and design keeps stressing the need to be concise and there is more and more licence for brevity. However, communication still needs to be substantive, representative, it can't be a mere excuse. It's growingly popular to combine very short lengths of text with a large image — the so called Ogilvy formula, i.e. 3/4-page picture and no more than 250 words is referred to as 'long' copy. More and more people just write short paragraphs directly on images. It looks more or less like this: http://sumisura.zegna.com/. In general, this is consistent with your notion of 'one tasty and meaty example', except that such an example is actually the only thing on that page.

Information that the translation is passionate about what he does, or interested also in the culture and not only in the language, may have some merit, perhaps more so with translators than interpreters. Still, such presentation is pretty generic. It makes everybody look the same. Plus, the style is not quite serious, only half professional or less. I saw some useful discussion of this at Jane Friedman's (http://janefriedman.com/writing-advice-archive/) — those are tips for fiction writers, where the issue of remaining professional while disclosing personal information makes a showing at some point.

As to the many faces — true, the same refers to translators, especially marketing translators (every client has a different image, speaks a different voice). In some situations it could be advantageous to the translator to run two or three websites, one each for his top specializations, e.g. keeping law separate from marketing. However, I'd express personality in different terms — I'd look for some individual characteristics that would not be so easily filled into a form. Even in reference to speciality fields one could always bring forth some interesting experience, education etc. Thought's been crossing my mind lately that it could be cool to include a short description of a translator's academic studies, experience etc. — all those things about which it is erroneously believed that they are of no interest to clients*.

[* False assumption of far-gone egocentrism short-sighted to the point that information not immediately referencing the reader will be shut off, which is male cow poo.]

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